This is the 4th year we’ve cast our beady little eyes over the JD Power Rental Car satisfaction study.

Now in its 17th year, the study measures overall domestic customer satisfaction with USA car rentals at airports by examining six factors (listed in order of importance): costs and fees; pick-up process; return process; rental car; shuttle bus/van; and reservation process.

Last year little known (in the UK) USA car hire supplier ACE Rent A Car walked away with the top award on the back of some very impressive customer services scores. Actually on the whole the car rental market’s customer service scores grew in 2011 and that trend has continued for 2012.

Overall satisfaction in 2012 averages 769 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 758 in 2011, and beats the record high of 767 that was set in 2006. Overall satisfaction in 2012 is driven by increases in scores across all factors except reservation process, which is down by one index point, compared to 2011.

Stuart Greif, vice president of the travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates said;

The rental car industry continues to step up its game, building on improvements in the rental car customer experience made over the past several years, while also benefiting from higher satisfaction levels with cost and fees relative to prior years, However, there still are tremendous opportunities to leverage technology to address customer pain points in the rental car experience. There is also an opportunity to make the most out of staff interactions with customers and raise customer satisfaction levels even higher.

So who actually won?

Enterprise Rent A Car: 804

National Car Rental: 788

Alamo Rent A Car: 773

Hertz: 771

Avis Rent A Car: 766

Budget Rent A Car: 753

Dollar Rent A Car: 738

ACE Rent A Car: 736

Thrifty Car Rental: 733

Advantage Rent A Car: 711

Payless Rent A Car: 708

Fox Rent A Car: 669

Congratulations to Enterprise Rent A Car and the whole Enterprise Company, who managed to win first, second and third place.